The Rookie Season 7, Episode 11, “Speed,” is a pure adrenaline ride inspired by the 1994 action thriller Speed. In it, “John (Nathan Fillion) and Celina (Lisseth Chavez) find themselves in a hostage situation while undercover for a public safety initiative. While Angela (Alyssa Diaz) and Nyla (Mekia Cox) investigate the suspects, Tim (Eric Winter) challenges Lucy’s (Melissa O’Neil) decision-making skills.” Speed is iconic and series star Richard T. Jones was apprehensive of the show touching it. “Because I’m a big fan of the movie, I was like, ‘Oh!’ I said, ‘Come on, [showrunner] Alexi [Hawley], you’ve got to do this right.’ I was a little leery when I first got the heads-up about it, but after reading it, I was very, I was very confident that we’d be OK,” he told TV Line. The episode is a lot for Lieutenant Gray as he handles crises on different fronts.
“The new rookie, Miles (Deric Augustine), is usually under Bradford, but it’s my day with him. I’m trying to train him up, and also get him through some money issues he’s having that date back to his before he joined the [Los Angeles police] force,” the actor said of one of Gray’s tasks. “But I’m also dealing with the whole Speed thing. We’re trying out cops undercover on buses, working with the transit department, and it’s supposed to be an easy day for them, to ride the bus all day, but the next thing you know….,” he added.
T. Jones also revealed that most of the action was captured using body and security cams, posing a challenge for some actors since they usually leave the cameras to another team. “It’s very difficult because we are using our body cams, so we’re kind of like cameramen at the same time. Some of us are better at it than others, and I am one of those others,” the actor said. However, he teased some fun surprises, saying:
“One thing Alexi is really good at is creating suspense, even in the read. It’s always something fresh, something new, so we’re always a little bit surprised about what’s going on. When we start finding out what the real motive is between things, we’re always a bit surprised.”
